Christmas Day was good for the NBA, and if there’s one thing NBA fans love it’s trades and trade talk — but will they get much of that this year, thanks to the full impact of the new CBA rules? Here are the latest trade rumors.
Riley tries to squash Jimmy Butler trade talk
Jimmy Butler was frustrated last summer when he didn’t get a $113 million max extension from the Heat. Instead, he got Pat Riley saying, “That’s a big decision on our part to commit those kinds of resources unless you have somebody who’s going to be there and available every single night.”
Since that day, Butler trade speculation has been ongoing in league circles. However, the buzz out of the NBA’s G-League showcase (an unofficial convention of NBA front office people) echoed what the best-informed sources have told reporters for a while: A Butler trade was unlikely. Miami was playing well enough to want to see how this season went, and constructing a good trade under the tax apron restrictions was difficult (at best).
That never stopped the rumors, which grew hotter on Christmas Day thanks to a fresh ESPN report, so Miami president Pat Riley stepped forward to squash them.
Statement from Pat Riley
“We usually don’t comment on rumors, but all this speculation has become a distraction to the team and is not fair to the players and coaches. Therefore, we will make it clear – We are not trading Jimmy Butler.”
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) December 26, 2024
Will that end the Butler trade talk? Yeah, right. If some team could step forward tomorrow with a Godfather offer Riley couldn’t refuse, he’d take it. However, if nobody has stepped forward with that trade yet, it’s not suddenly going to appear out of thin air.
Far more likely is a Butler sign-and-trade (or, more likely, opt-in and extend and trade) this offseason, but a Butler trade during the season seems like a long shot at this point.
Teams monitoring De’Aaron Fox’s situation
Kings’ anchor De’Aaron Fox went on the Draymond Green podcast recently and said he didn’t sign an extension with Sacramento last summer because he wanted to see where the team was headed, how it was set up to win in the future (which may be partially true, but waiting was also a much better financial move for him). Then Fox’s agent, Rich Paul, met with Kings’ brass last week to get a sense of the team’s plans and future.
With that background, and the Kings having dropped five straight, other teams are preparing for the possibility that Fox asks for a trade (either before the deadline or this summer), ESPN’s Tim McMahon said on the Hoop Collective podcast.
To be clear, Fox and his people have not asked for a trade to this point, and the Kings’ plan is to offer him another max extension this summer and keep him. Fox, for his part, has done nothing but praise Sacramento and say ideally he’d like to retire there. All that said, prepping for a trade is what other front offices should do, just in case.
San Antonio and Houston are the two teams first mentioned as being ready, two young teams on the rise in need of a long-term answer at the point. Then there is Miami, but that’s more because Fox and Bam Adebayo are tight. The Lakers are mentioned, but that’s less reality-based (during the season, at least) and more about his agent’s ties to the Lakers and the fact that the Lakers come up in every rumor anyway. Beyond that group, expect other teams to step up if this speculation becomes real.
Michael Porter Jr. says trade talk “all noise”
The Denver Nuggets reportedly are interested in trading for Zach LaVine, and the only realistic path to making that happen is for Michael Porter Jr. to be traded away. Porter Jr. was asked about those rumors and called them noise (quote courtesy DNVR Sports).
“They’ve reached out to me and said it’s all noise. There’s nothing serious going on, and if there was, they’d let me know. They’ve said they love how I’m playing and to keep being aggressive, and they have no desire to move me right now.
“But I also know that they wouldn’t tell me if they wanted to move me. But they have reached out, yeah.”
Suns have eye on Nikola Vucevic
If one Bulls player is likely on the move at the trade deadline, it may be center Nikola Vucevic. For a couple of reasons.
One, multiple teams are looking for help or upgrades at the five. The Phoenix Suns, in particular, have their eyes on him, reports Marc Stein in his newsletter. However, a straight swap of centers (Vucevic for Jusuf Nurkic) does not work under terms of the CBA (Vucevic makes $1.9 million more than Nurkic, and because the Suns are over the second tax apron and can’t bring in $1 more than they send out, plus the Suns cannot aggregate multiple salaries in this trade).
The other reason Vucevic might be on the move: Chicago initially was asking for a first-round pick for the center. However, the Bulls are now willing to take back multiple second-rounders for Vucevic, partly because teams are not willing to surrender firsts, reports Jay Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. While Vucevic is a quality offensive center averaging 20.7 points and 9.8 rebounds a game this season, teams were looking at him and the $21 million he is owed next season and balking at the price of a first-rounder. So far, nothing has changed. Right now there is not a lot of momentum for a Vucevic trade, but maybe things warm up as the deadline nears.
Grizzlies interested in Dorian Finney-Smith
For all its talent, Memphis would love more shooting and depth on the wing.
Which is why they are interested in Brooklyn’s Dorian Finney-Smith, Marc Stein reports. The Nets are open for business and are interested in the Grizzlies’ John Konchar, according to the report. A trade of Finney-Smith for Konchar and Luke Lennard (maybe with a pick) works under the cap. This is something worth watching.
